An artillery turret is composed schematically of a gun barrel mounted on a frame oscillating about two trunnions defining a horizontal axis on a support which itself turns about a vertical axis. The projectiles are placed in a magazine disposed under the mounting and must therefore be conveyed one after the other to the gun barrel. For this purpose the magazine is connected to the mounting by a feed corridor in which the projectiles, introduced automatically or manually, are moved one behind the other in the direction of their axes. On leaving the feed corridor, the projectiles pass into a transfer corridor, which brings them to the gun barrel and which is therefore composed of two parts: a fixed corridor situated in the mounting and a movable corridor situated in the oscillating frame.
In the transfer corridor the projectiles are normally moved side by side in a direction at right angles to their axis, this arrangement making it possible in particular to turn the projectiles gradually so as to bring them into a direction parallel to the gun barrel in order to facilitate their introduction into the breech.
In order to bring about the movement of the projectiles parallel to their axis, the transfer corridor is generally provided with a series of star wheels mounted for rotation about axes at right angles to the axis of the corridor, while the latter is bounded by two parallel guide members spaced apart by a distance equal to the diameter of the projectiles.
Each of the star wheels comprises at least two sockets of a section corresponding to that of the object, each of these sockets being framed by two arms which respectively attend to the taking-over of the object coming from the preceding plate and to pushing it to the following plate.
Thus, at the same time as the object is pushed out of the socket, the next socket takes over the object coming from the preceding wheel. The star wheels comprise in most cases four sockets separated by four arms, and thus have the shape of a Maltese cross.
Consequently, there is a discontinuity between the rhythm of succession of the objects in the feed corridor and that in the transfer corridor, because in the feed corridor the objects move one behind the other in the direction of their axes and therefore arrive discontinuously at the outlet, whereas in the transfer corridor it is possible because of the star wheels to effect the movement of the objects continuously.
The invention provides a solution to this problem with the aid of an apparatus making it possible for the projectiles arriving discontinuously at the outlet of the feed corridor to be introduced continuously into the transfer corridor.